We left for vacation on July 6th. We decided to go to Colorado Springs in hopes of finding cooler weather. Matt's mom and dad went with us so we left from Stephenville. The first day we drove to Amarillo and stayed the night. That was about as long as Jackson could stand being in the car. He was such a good traveler. He played most of the way and took a nap or too. He had the best entertainment anyone could ask for in the back with him - grandparents!
While in Amarillo we stopped and ate breakfast at the Big Texan (Home of the Free 72 oz. steak!) It was definitely a tourist trap, but a fun place to stop. Jackson loved all of the Texas sized decorations! Here's a picture just in case you are curious about what a 72oz steak looks like - CRAZY!
The next day we drove to Mosca, Colorado to The Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was such an amazing place. Mountains all around and at the base sat huge mountains of sand. There was a creek flowing through close to the dunes. Jackson didn't care for the ice cold water at first, but in a matter of minutes was crawling around and splashing in the water. He cried when we took him out.
We stayed in Pueblo, Colorado that night and then drove on to Colorado Springs. We went to the Garden of the Gods. It is such a beautiful place but I was so disappointed. I had really been looking forward to cool weather and being outside. It was so hot that day! It felt like Texas! We decided to cut our visit to the park short and find something cooler to do. We went to Manitou Springs and had dinner. We ate at a Polish restaurant. I was adventurous and decided to skip the hamburger and go with the Polish dish - stuffed cabbage and potato dumplings. It was actually very tasty!
Garden of the Gods
The next day we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was a very cool zoo. They had so many giraffes. You could walk right up to the giraffes on a deck and feed them crackers. They had already been fed a lot of crackers by the time we got there so we decided to just enjoy looking at them. Jackson loved all of the animals. Because the zoo is located on the side of the mountain there were so many good views.
While on vacation we also went to Denver. We ate at a really cool restaurant called Casa Bonita. It was so much fun. I would describe it as Pancho's meets Crystal's Pizza. There was a diving pool and stage where actors put on gun fights and dived into the pool. There were waiters dressed in costumes and lots of fun things for kids to do. Jackson spotted the kid rides and had to ride the donkey. It really went against my preemie mom judgement to put him on that germ covered donkey but I decided to go for it - he wanted to so bad and afterall that's what germX and baby wipes are for! He was scared at first and then loved it. His face was priceless!
Jackson loved his light-up sword.
The night before we started home we decided to go back to The Garden of the Gods. It was much cooler and there was a little bit of a breeze. I am so glad we did. Matt and I had a great time walking around and looking at all of the formations.
We really had a great time on our trip. Jackson did so well on this trip I can't wait to take him on the road again!
